Yelm's Light

When there are 40 pages just in the DMG (and hundreds more in ancillary books) devoted to magic items and 4 in RQ2 plus Plunder (with even some of those items being completely mundane and non-magical), yeah, it clearly is a system thing. D&D was all about the items you had or could get. RQ2 is not. What isn't clear about this? As far as a spell matrix is concerned, you're paying temporary POW for every use; it's not an inherent (free) power of the item itself like a +x weapon. OK, you win. Crystals and matrices are magic items, in the same way that spell books are. They're ubiquitous. In the end, they're effectively reservoirs for POW (crystals) or INT (matrices). And they are quite literally the majority of all magic items, by far. They add nothing to the game but power level. No roleplaying, no scenario hooks. Much like most magic items in D&D.

The only magic involved with rune metal items is keying them to the individual owner and eliminating the magic-dampening effect of iron. Do they inherently register to Detect Magic in your world? In that case, your Rune-levels must veritably glow. As for crystals/matrices, they're pretty much an extension of the spell casting rules, but at least they have some form of origin story, if very general (the blood of the gods or inscribed conduits for casting). Aside from Snakepipe Hollow, which I cited myself, you're talking about huge campaign packs, and even in those the vast majority are crystals/matrices. Again, you miss my point, which Styopa understood and obviated the need to regurgitate it. The game system is what I'm talking about. Anyone is free to alter the rules in whatever way he/she pleases, but that doesn't change what's in the book(s).

If you count power crystals and spell matrices as magic items, maybe. And again, maybe in RQ3 (I have no experience of running that), but definitely not in RQ2. Taking the example of Apple Lane (which happens to be at the top of my scenarios box), aside from what might be hiding in Gringle's Pawn Shop and a few items in treasure hordes including immovable idols and statues, there are exactly two mobs that are listed with magic items: Gringle himself and Quackjohn. None of the other NPC's or monsters, including the leaders of the trolls and newtlings in the caves of the Rainbow Mounds, has any. To be fair, Snakepipe Hollow has a number of magic items, but it's also a MUCH higher-level adventure than most, highly deadly, and even most of the magic items there are wielded by leaders of gangs, priests, or Bigclub. I've owned Plunder, and designed 17 items that are in our little unofficial Plunder II. But if you notice, the vast majority of those 17 are either mundane, practical items with very specific, limited uses (of which there were a fair number in the original Plunder) or hero-level items. I also started with Basic D&D and played AD&D 1st edition heavily until I lost interest in it (coincidental with my discovery of RQ and multiple other RPG's that weren't so completely setting-independent).

Not at all. D&D (well, mostly AD&D) was built significantly around the aspiration to have more and better magic items. RQ was not; in fact, even as prevalent as magic is in Glorantha, the aspiration is generally more mundane, toward skills, status, and roleplaying. There are, count 'em, four pages in RQ2 devoted to magic (actually called 'special') items.

I'm not particularly hot on this idea, either. It's the D&D syndrome that 'more items' is better. I remember character sheets with a list of magic items running down the page. That's never been what RQ was about.

Except that it doesn't take into account enemy action. A deflection could alter hit location greatly.

Interesting; I'd thought the Judges' Guild had long since gone defunct, but it appears that Bob Bledsaw's son has resurrected the company. I still have a few original printed copies: Hellpits, Duck Tower, half a dozen issues of the Dungeoneer, and a RQ Judges' Shield.

Looks interesting, and right up my alley. Besides, you can't beat the price!

Yeah, Champions was (and probably still is) the gold standard for character creation, granting a bit of a learning curve and a susceptibility to attempted min-maxing. (This from someone who played with the Cal Tech crew that playtested the game, but it had already been published by the time I fell in with them.)

So, becoming a priest saddles the PC with all kinds of responsibilities in exchange for an allied spirit, a 20% better POW gain roll and a couple of other minor advantages? Yeah, not seeing it. People keep saying how difficult it is to become a Priest, but I haven't seen that either, barring permanent death. I had one player get lucky with a few rolls and have the POW requirement within three sessions of play. Add a year of service as an initiate, which could be a few months or less depending on the time scale involved for the group, and you've got instant rune priest. (As it happened, it took him a little over six months to hit Priest status; he failed the examination the first time, at around four months.)

Ah yes, the ever-popular 'Hook 'em Horns' casting position.

You could have extrapolated that from RQ2, but it certainly wasn't in the rules. In my game we never recalculated bonuses unless permanent stats changed, and most of the time that was at one particular point (POW = 21 to below that) for Rune Priests and took about two minutes to do.

In my experience (with RQ2; while I have the Deluxe RQ3 set, I've never run it...not my cup of tea) it's a lot easier to make Rune Priest than Rune Lord. Generally all you need is POW 18, a bit of time spent as an initiate, and maybe one skill at 80 or 90%, depending on the cult. Sacrificing for the spells, on the other hand, can be a slowish process.

RQ2 impales add the rolled damage (including bonuses) to the maximum possible damage. There's an optional rule that will cause damage to the impaled target if they don't pull out the stuck weapon, but that's the only case mentioned. Agreed. More crunch, less flow. I'm also not a big fan of a character at maximum ENC immediately going into penalty for taking pretty much any action whatsoever. RQ2's ENC rules are workable and, as importantly, simple. In RQ2 there's the special case of dual wielding, where the attacker can choose to forego a parry in a round to get a second attack at the normal attack chance. I don't think it's mentioned in the main RQ2 rules, but I remember scenarios that introduced special rules. For instance, the newtlings in the Rainbow Caves in Apple Lane had nets that would cause an enemy fumble on his/her next action, only required a hit, and could be parried.

It seems there are some not-so-mythical reasons. First, it's off the beaten path unless you're a troll or Bison Rider; the only nearby road runs between the Castle of Lead and Pairing Stone. No river traffic, either. There doesn't seem to be a lot of movement from or to Pavis (or Dragon Pass, for that matter). Humans appear to be mostly outlaws, the indigent, traders who are willing to hazard the less-than-hospitable lands, or Bison tribe grazing nearby. Add to that a vulnerability to and history of attacks from just about every quarter, and that it's a fleabag of a town. It might be worth a small detachment, but not a serious commitment of forces.

Not having Part deux is like the ice cream cone without the sprinkles, nuts, and chocolate dip. Oddly enough, Borderlands is the only one of the Classics books I don't have (and never got around to getting the original). I had both Plunder and Runemasters before they were unceremoniously waterlogged in a garage flood, but I don;t miss them all that much. I'm good at coming up with maguffins and NPC's.

I tend to prefer Griffin Mountain for that very reason; it gives the raw materials for scenario-building without everyone and his brother knowing the particulars of the campaign I'm running. More room for creativity, too. Heh... I pulled out my TotRM's to do a little refreshing on things Praxian, and what do I see at the top of Beornvig's desk stack? #14.

Pat Trick and Jo Oak, National Trust Rangers, are pretty much a dead giveaway as well...

I tend to think that starting with Heroquest is going in reverse. I'd suggest starting with the nuts and bolts before graduating to the world-changing myth makers. There's enough background in the original rulebook (RQ2, that is) and Cults of Prax as a start. That's what I began my foray into RQ with (along with Apple Lane, which came in the boxed set I first bought). Cults of Terror and Griffin Mountain followed in short order, and that and Prax kept me busy for a long time. You don't really need background on the entire planet (i.e., Guide to Glorantha); it's handy to have as a reference, but daunting to deal with when you're just getting into things. (And then the Chaosium guys send me to time-out for suggesting not getting a product...)

Coolness...basically combining the city and neighborhood maps (for New Pavis, that is).

Go to http://www.freerpgday.com , click on 'Retailer Locator,' and enter your location. The map will show local participating FLGS's.

Hmm...that's a helluva lot of crunch for not a lot of gain.

Perusing my P&BR Classics book, I could only find one explicit reference to Morocanth, as an encounter type in the Rubble. However, there is an ancillary bit on food and animal sellers that mentions both mock pork and herd men (p. 40-41). I would think that Badside would be a place you could find one or two, preparing what little of the mock pork or other herd man cuts are sold within the walls. It's also stated that live herd men aren't sold "within the aegis of the Pavis Royal Guard," but half a page away the implication is made that they can be bought, so obviously there would have to be a slaver or three around. Of course, they could quite easily be in the Rubble or somewhere else outside the city gates. In my game I had a few in Badside and a fairish contingent in the Rubble.

I thought of it as an even more primitive Deadwood, but now i have the cantina song running through my head and it...won't...go...away. Thanks for that. (Great series, btw, even if it was pruned before its time.)

Actually, that was the brainchild of a few overzealous Republican Congressmen (is that a truism?), but Georgie-Porgie did sign on to it. Yes, we have no potatoes... Sorry, I couldn't resist.